China

2012

It's not often we at CPJ find ourselves calling on other
countries to release
Chinese journalists from detention. But that's just what happened yesterday.
Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV contacted us to say that two of their journalists
were among a group of 14 arrested by Japanese authorities over a disputed
territory in the East China Sea. For once, we found ourselves in accordance
with Chinese authorities, who called for the "unconditional and immediate
release" of all 14, according to Reuters.

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New
York, August 16, 2012--Japanese authorities should release two Phoenix TV
journalists detained Wednesday while covering Chinese protesters landing on a
disputed territory between Japan and China, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said today.

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We cover all kinds of censorship here at CPJ. Recently we documented
the cunning application of scissors to prevent readers from accessing
China-related articles in hard copy magazines. But it's been a while since
we've had chance to write about one favored implement of information control in
China: the umbrella.

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Chinese propaganda
officials must be thrilled that they're not responsible for the Olympics
coverage in the British papers. Back during the Beijing Games, they worked hard
to censor unrest and dissatisfaction in the domestic media. Reports of China's press freedom and human rights abuses were blocked, the kind of information
control idiomatically referred to as "harmonizing."

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This week, Morgan Marquis-Boire and Bill
Marczak of the University of
Toronto's Citizen Lab provided a disturbing
look into the likely use of a commercial surveillance program, FinFisher,
to remotely invade and control the computers of Bahraini activists. After the
software installs itself onto unsuspecting users' computer, it can record and
relay emails, screenshots, and Skype audio conversations. It was deployed
against Bahraini users after being concealed in seemingly innocent emails.

Chinese journalists are questioning government propaganda due
to conflicting reports of the death toll following Saturday's devastating
flooding in Beijing. Like the Wenzhou train crash and the Sichuan earthquake,
the tragedy has galvanized mainstream and online journalists--and the official
narrative is crumbling under their scrutiny.

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New York, July 24, 2012--A year after drawing public ire for
censoring coverage of a high-speed train crash, Chinese authorities should
allow journalists to freely cover the aftermath of Saturday's deadly flooding
in and around the capital, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
International news accounts said 37 people died in Beijing and up to 100 people
nationwide.

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Attempts to rein in
microblogs like Sina Weibo are a huge part of China's sophisticated information control strategy
these days. However, news reports last week serve as a reminder that propaganda
authorities also rely on methods that are more old school.

Shi
Junrong, Xi'an Evening News bureau chief in the city of Wei'an, ran into
trouble recently after he reported on the costly brand of luxury cigarettes
favored by local officials. He announced on his microblog that the paper
suspended him soon after, according to the U.S. government-funded Radio
Free Asia.